I absolutely loved ToyBiz’s Marvel Super Heroes line, which went hand-in-hand with Marvel Universe trading cards to transform me from someone who was casually aware of comic books into someone who still remembers planet Salaria by name.

Among the set’s best figures was Venom, but specifically THIS Venom, which came with the accessory to end all accessories: A battery-operated backpack that let him spew audible threats! Each of the backpack’s three buttons signaled a different phrase, the best of which being — and this is an exact quote — “I WANT TO EAT YOUR BRAIN.”

The figure debuted back when anything having to do with Venom was immediately cool, but the fact that this one came with a Halliburton modified into a shit-talking backpack just put it over the top.

Mumm-Ra!Thundercats, LJN 1986

I’ve previously covered the “grandpa mummy” version of Mumm-Ra on Dino Drac, but this is the badass blue-skinned uber version, who admittedly looks less intimidating without his hat.

(Seriously, Mumm-Ra’s Mardi Gras headpiece is not on the list of action figure accessories a collector can afford to lose. It’s like Shipwreck without the parrot.)

Even without the hat and that crucial component that originally made Mumm-Ra’s eyes glow, it’s still an awesome figure, more akin in size to a LJN WWF figure than anything from the 3¾” realm. When you look at the original Masters of the Universe collection, it’s obvious that He-Man wouldn’t have meant so much without a strong adversary. And Mumm-Ra was definitely this line’s Skeletor.

The figure is also the source of residual anger for yours truly. Back when I was in the Boy Scouts, we had a “Christmas grab bag” gift exchange. Bring a gift, throw it into a big garbage bag, and pick another one for yourself. I ended up with some lame battery-operated tank that absolutely stank of somebody’s mother doing a quick run to the pharmacy on the way to the meeting. It turned out that the cruddy gift was contributed by the very same kid who ended up with mine. Hope you liked that Mumm-Ra, you louse.

The Cryptkeeper!Tales from the Cryptkeeper, Ace Novelties 1993

Tales from the Cryptkeeper was a quirky attempt to turn Tales from the Crypt into a kid-friendly animated series. (It’s weird how that one slipped by without some overzealous children’s group franticly protesting its debut. In any event, the cartoon series was utterly harmless.)

The toy line was larger than you might think, with at least eight monsters that all looked like budgeted versions of Real Ghostbusters spooks. In deference to Cryptkeeper’s historic penchant for costume changes, there were several figures representing him. The one with the crude cloak was the most iconic, but I might actually prefer this tuxedo-donning version. I guess it’s those black Play-Doh legs. We all have our things.

Scarecrow!Batman: The Animated Series, Kenner 1993

Batman: The Animated Series was a wonderful cartoon made more important by the utter garbage it was bookended with.

At least, that was my impression at the time. Batman: TAS seemed like an oasis each afternoon, with writing, stories and characters that were sooo much headier than any of my other after-school decompressors.

One neat thing about the corresponding action figures was their distinct “Happy Meal toy” vibe. Don’t get me wrong — they were well-made and large enough for the retail market, but most of them had a certain quaint simplicity that made the ‘93 me feel like the ‘83 me.

In a series full of Jokers and Harleys and brooding Freezes and MOTHERFUCKIN’ CLAYFACE, I can’t say that Scarecrow was even close to my favorite baddie. Still, this is a tremendous figure, complete with Inhumanoids-style eyes that glow red under direct light!

Judge Doom!Roger Rabbit Flexies, LJN 1988

Yup, it happened! A Judge Doom action figure!

(As a matter of full disclosure, I’ll mention that the same company made a non-bendy Judge Doom that was actually twice as cool, but in a pinch, I’ll gladly put up with trying to make this one stand.)

Judge Doom had all the traits that I look for in a villain. Specifically, he dressed like the Undertaker. It’s hard to imagine anyone from the Roger Rabbit universe as being too threatening, but I’ll remind you that this is the same guy who once forced an adorable anthropomorphic shoe into a vat of smoky acid.

Like, if my Cobra Commander broke at the waist and I needed someone else to order Zartan and Croc Master around, this dumb bendy would’ve worked wonders.

Thanks for reading about another five (spooky) action figures!

PS: If you missed it over the weekend, the latest episode of The Purple Stuff Podcast has dropped. Also, I have a new article up on Star Wars Dot Com, covering a vintage Darth Vader Halloween costume. If you followed me on Twitter, you’d know these things sooner!

I would like to add my Christmas Grab Bag story into the hat. It was 5th grade and we all were allowed to spend $5 on a gift for a fellow classmate. The only info we were given was if you were getting a gift for a boy or a girl. My mission, which I took very seriously, was to get a $5 gift for a boy. I chose a Transformers tape 2 pack with 2 transforming Dinosaurs. I may have tried to play sick that day so that I could keep it for myself but my acting was not up to par that day and I was sent to school, gift in hand. When the time finally came to exchange the gifts, we were all given a gift randomly from the teacher. I ripped off the wrapping paper as soon as the gift entered my hands only to find possibly the worst gift I could ever get…….a 24 pack of #2 pencils! I was crushed.

Talk about nostalgia on this one… the only one of the shows/movies that wasn’t a personal fad for me was Cryptkeeper, and even then I was at least aware of the cartoon’s existence. I even enjoyed Venom a bit back then because I was new to the character and hadn’t yet noticed how completely overexposed he’d get in the comics — or, frankly, how absurd the character really is in a lot of ways. When I learned that he was a pre-Spawn Todd McFarlane creation, it made a lot of sense. (I know I’ll get some flak for this, but I don’t think Venom ever would have worked in a live-action film; not for most audience members. Yes, S3 was bad, and Topher Grace was bad… but I don’t think “good” was in the cards.) But despite the silly over-the-top grotesqueness of him, I can’t deny there’s some appeal to him as well. An Anti-Spider-Man, especially one that negated Spidey’s main advantage (the spider-sense) was a good concept at heart.

Mumm-Ra’s a classic, and I’m glad my personal collection (acquired as an adult, because man ThunderCats figures were pricey back in the day) contains a complete one. The cartoon I view with half-laughing nostalgia nowadays, but the toyline is just flawless. These figures always look great.

Animated series Scarecrow is pretty cool, and that figure looks great. I love it when action figures manage to hit that sweet spot between stylized simplicity and detail. One of my favorite toylines is the Super Powers Collection, which didn’t have a Scarecrow but is still worth mentioning here — when Kenner put out that toyline, Hanna-Barbera revamped Super Friends yet again, into the Legendary Super Powers Show (and Super Powers: Galactic Guardians the following year). The production values went up in those two seasons, as did the storytelling. Including one very special episode: “The Fear”. It’s the first time Batman’s origin story, dead parents and all, was shown in a medium other than the comic books themselves. And it features the Scarecrow. It’s this nearly-pure Batman episode (Wonder Woman guest stars, but otherwise it’s all Batman side characters), and it’s terrific. As a high-concept for a Batman episode goes, you can’t do much better than “Scarecrow takes on Batman in Crime Alley.”

Bart Crowe

Those ToyBiz Marvel figures were the best. I still got several of my X-Men figures in storage including my favorite, Mr. Sinister with the light up eyes.

Noah

Damn man I’m sorry. You gave such a nice gift. I used to have the tape 2 pack that had the gorilla and the bird. They combined into a bigger robot. I can’t remember their names now, but I’m sure they were Decepticons.

You deserved to feel crushed. You got ripped off. I mean, that’s not even trying to give a genuine gift.

I only participated in one of those grab-bags, and I wound up with a small elephant figure. Not exactly exciting either, but it least it wasn’t pencils. I wound up giving it to my sister, who collected elephants at the time. I don’t remember what the gift I gave was. Probably some cheap action figure, though.

The best part of this, is the story does not end there. A year later, I gave my friend Jason the NES game Ballon Fight for his birthday. It was like $25 at the time, but that was the amount that we usually spent between all of our friends. When it came time for Jason to give me my birthday gift, what did he give me? That same $5 transformers dinosaur 2 pack.

Noah

Fear not, the cosmos eventually redresses all grievances.

tombo

I actually had the holy grail of Animated Series Batman figures – Combat Belt Batman -the one of Batman coloured grey, like the show, and with cloth cape, a working grappling hook and batarang, and removable utility belt that held it all. Then for some stupid reason, I decided I was a cool video game fan, too old for toys and gave it to my neighbor in return for something dumb. I spent the next year trying to swap him something else good to get it back.

The thing is, at the time Combat Belt batman was widely available and the villains were hard to find. As time passed, people realized that Combat Belt Batman was the only version of Batman that resembled the TV likeness and it become the holy grail. This is when Kenner became notorious for releasing Batman in neon colors with ridiculous play features.

tombo

Every other Batman had silly colors and silly gadgets. And they were all you could find. I wished so much they didn’t make those other Batmans and just produced loads of the villains and regular Batman.

And I had that Mumm-Ra! If I recall correctly, both he and his light-up Lion-O counterpart stood taller than the rest of the line.

Eric Bellavance

Speaking of “standing” I cannot believe you got Scarecrow to stand upright. I recall that figure as being the bane of my existence for constantly flopping over before I got my shit set up.

Brew Berry

Man, I loved that Venom figure. Or more accurately, I loved his voicepack. We fiddled with it for hours, convinced that if we could just tap the button in the right rhythm, we could scratch DJ his recording into a menacing rap.

“I want to eat… I want to eat… I want to eat your brain, your brain!”

It was a simpler time with simpler toys. Or maybe we were just really easy to amuse.

Lion-O’s a little bit taller than most of the other male figures, but not greatly so; really, about proportionate to how he stood in the cartoon (i.e., he’s taller than Tigra, who in turn is taller than Panthro). Mumm-Ra’s a bit taller yet.

Was that talking Venom figure actually pulled from store shelves for saying “I want to eat your brain!”, or is that just a myth?
I actually had the first version of that figure, the one that came with black slime that you squeezed out of his chest. The way his arms were positioned always bothered me. It’s like he was trying to imitate Frankenstein’s Monster or a zombie.

Mumm-Ra was one of two Thundercats toys I ever owned. The other, of course, was Lion-O. I remember playing with those two for hours on my grandmother’s bed, while I out sick from school. I kinda liked that they were pretty big and chunky. I always forget that they had light up eyes. Probably because most auctions I see don’t include the piece that makes them light up.

Heh, those Tales from the Cryptkeeper figures were pretty bad, weren’t they? I remember them hanging around on the shelves for a long time. In fact, it felt like our Kmart always had toys that had been long discontinued. I did manage to catch a couple episodes of the show, and they weren’t too bad. Kinda like an animated Goosebumps, or Are You Afraid of the Dark.

tromataker

The format was exactly the same of Tales of the Crypt, but animated. Cryptkeeper intro/outro, kid friendly horror story in the middle.

Luke

One interesting thing is he was also often joined by The Vault Keeper and the Old Witch, the other two horror hosts from the original ’50s EC Comics. Unlike the Crypt Keeper, they were drawn more or less how they were in the comics.

1. The scene with the shoe in the dip (which I still, as an almost 30-year-old, cannot watch)
2. The scene where he first gets up after being steamrolled. Right when his extremities are starting to peel off the floor. Judge Doom was 10 leagues creepier than anything else in that film, definitely.

Amazing to think what a still-packaged version of your $5 gift would be worth now… as opposed to the pencils, which are probably worth exactly the same.

AdamX

Scarecrow…one day soon I’ll be kicking his tail all over Gotham City in Arkham Knight. Also cool to see a Judge Doom figure, also seeing Venom on fear toxin would be a hellish nightmare I’d imagine. Not that he isn’t terrifying as is.

ProactiveMan

The Judge Doom figure is a neat insight into the production schedule of movie merch. He was originally supposed to have an animated vulture sitting on his shoulder in the movie, but they eighty-sixed the idea to save money. I guess LJN got started on the figures before that decision was made.

Matt Gilbreath

Its funny to me that you have Judge Doom right under scarecrow, who also came with a bird that perched on his arm but is mysteriously absent. Scarecrow was one of the few actual batman villains that I had. I think I only had him, a few jokers, and catwoman. My batman almost always fought other bad guys, such as ninja turtle and toxic avenger bad guys.

MUMM-RA YES! That was a line I definitely wanted figures from – Thundercats was AWESOME – but alas, no “boy toys” 🙁 That rule of my mom’s really sucked. So what if they weren’t the same scale as Barbie?

Yeah, I always thought that was a dumb one! My sister and I really liked a bunch of shows targeted to boys – Ninja Turtles, Thundercats, He-Man, Real Ghostbusters, the list goes on – but nope, couldn’t have any toys to reflect that.

Matt Gilbreath

Now I’m feeling all nostalgic. I remember using this guy as my ultimate villain. Basically lucifer himself

He was from the Terminator 2 line in the 90s. My batman went up against some stiff competition. He had extendable arms and legs, which could make him a lot taller than in that picture. The rotating hip cannons were also pretty sweet.

Matt Gilbreath

Scarecrow’s right arm did move at the elbow. Well, it rotated anyways. It was an action feature that you used in conjunction with his scythe. His other arm is held straight out so that his crow can perch on it. Both arms do move at the shoulders as well.

jackfrost

I saw the figure and I wondered why there was a vulture there. I learned something new today. Thank you.

I would be all over an “Electronic Talking Venom” figurine that looked like Cronos and spouted out lyrics (“Lay down your soul to The Gods’ rock ‘n’ roll!”, et c.) whenever you pressed a button. Inexplicable top hat and cane from the “Nightmare” music video sold separately, of course.

Nina

Aw, that sucks! Even my uptight mom, who’s always worried about “what people will think”, never batted an eyelash when I headed straight for the “boy aisles” any time we were in a toy store.

dwite fry

still my favourite thing on this site – every entry has five figures i love, but this one is particularly awesome – Thundercats! Who Framed Roger Rabbit! Batman! Talking venom – though Talking Marvel Superheroes figures were the shit, it may not have made sense in -cannon for the Hulk to have a metal backpack but who cares!

That Cryptkeeper’s legs are interesting–I know it’s probably supposed to be creases and folds in the pants, but it looks like someone took the original sculpt and squeezed the legs. I have the cloaked version, and in my toy hunting travels this weekend, I am hoping to add the tuxedo version to my monster collection. It’s the only way I’ll consider the hunt a success.

JohnV

That’s horrible. Pack of pencils in a Christmas grab bag, what a gut punch gift. Happened to me too..not the pencils but getting someone’s random piece of junk from around the house instead of a toy like I contributed. Stuff like this is why I don’t participate in our company secret Santa. Especially since the manager one year just threw in company swag as their “gift”. :-/

I thought their song Countess Bathory sounded really ahead of its time, sounds like a 90s metal sound.

tombo

My gran forbade me from reading old enid blyton books i found around her house because they were for girls and said I could only read my uncle’s old westerns!

Noah

In case you guys forgot, today is the day Doc and Marty arrived from the eighties. You’re welcome.

Modok

Oh, I didn’t even know the Funpack arrangements were made…I had asked how to help with it but never saw anything further about it. I’m really glad you got your Funpack. Awesome gesture, Brew Berry. That’s what makes this site such a nice place.

Max Shreck

I’m in the same boat with the Marvel Universe trading cards working hand in hand with the Toy Biz line to make mine Marvel!

Before that most of my comic knowledge came from the Super Friends cartoon.

I have some Tales From the Cryptkeeper on dvd and it’s an odd little cartoon.

Modok

I’ve always wondered if the writers/animators/Zemeckis were ever bothered by that shoe scene. Did they find it funny because they were all tired of adorable anthropomorphic Disney objects and animals? Did they just figure no one would be *that* bothered by it? Did anyone want to pull back a little and get overruled by a furious Zemeckis shouting, “This isn’t a KIDS’ movie, dammit!” ?

I’d like to know what the DVD commentary is during that scene. That poor, sweet little shoe.

Brew Berry

You’re very welcome! As for the second thing Matt hinted at, that one’s thanks to the kindness of someone else, no idea who. Possibly Larry? He must be a pretty softhearted guy underneath it all, how else could he be such a soulful singer?

I haven’t had a chance to watch your video yet – I’m outside WiFi range right now and my iPhone tends to burn through an entire month’s GB allowance if I let it load videos on its lonesome – but I’ll definitely check it out when I can. I’m curious to see what fun little extras Matt added in!

Brew Berry

Sorry, that’s sort of my fault. I jumped the gun on signing up for the Funpack before Matt could set up a group payment method. I knew the October pack would be a hot item, and when I clicked on the site and saw they’d just gone up for sale, I immediately grabbed one. I guess it’s an ingrained knee-jerk response born of all the last second eBay bids I’ve made to keep stuff I really wanted from getting sharked away just before the clock ran out.

Does anyone else love the movie What We Do in the Shadows as much as I do? What an unexpected gem of a movie. I CANNOT BELIEVE it has taken me this long to see it. Jemaine Clement is always hilarious, and this is easily going to be a Halloween favorite, if not THE FAVORITE, going forward.

tombo

don’t remind me..he had little handcuff too.

Modok

Yes!! It was terrific. They’re supposedly making, or at least considering, a sequel. Meanwhile, Viago (Taika Waititi) is actually going to direct the next Thor movie. Quite a step up.

Modok

Oh, that’s fine…I was just concerned I missed an e-mail or deadline or something. It was very cool of you to do.

My favorite Marvel Super Heroes figure from Toy Biz was the wolverine with removable mask. The figure was crudely made but in a charming way. The mask ended up looking like Logan was wearing a Ben Cooper Halloween mask.

Great! We’ve got less than an hour and a half before deadline, people! Let’s get this stuff rolled out on the streets! Streets that we.. uh.. shouldn’t need where we’re going. Which is as near to right now as makes no odds.

Hmm. This stuff always sounds more exciting when Doc says it.

Max Tailchaser

Anyone remember the hubbub over the Talking Venom? Basically parents who should have known better complained about the sayings “Die Spiderman” and “I want to eat your brain” It pretty much guaranteed a rush to buy up all the figures and resell them at bloated prices. My local comic shop was an offender and tried hawking them at $50 a pop. That was until I found some for $5 at the Swansea Mall Kay Bee. Even when his store finally closed he had those figures marked down to $20. There was a second Venom figure that came with a spider full of black “slime”. now THAT was impressive. You could reenact scenes from the comics. The slime could then be collected up and squeezed back into a hole in the spider’s abdomen.
No matter how evil you are you will never, ever, ever be more evil than Mumm-Ra the ever Living. Perfect depiction of a lich (for those of who are Dungeons and Dragons fans) Mumm- ra was also had a version that came with Ma-Mutt. It was always something to see how much he doted on his little hellhound.
Don’t recall seeing the other figures around back then. Always thought that Batman and Spiderman had the best villain galleries.
I recall the 90s really being the time when prices for vintage/classic toys really took off. for so long it was a niche market but as with comics you had people who had no business getting into the collecting and did it with the hopes of making a fast buck. It crashed pretty quickly with the falling of the comic book market ($1000 bucks for Wolverine’s first full story? yeah, I’ll pass)

Brew Berry

BTW… For those looking for an appropriate “13 Days of Halloween” way to salute Back to the Future Day (officially kicking off in roughly 15 minutes at 4:29pm Pacific time), here’s an episode of the short-lived Saturday morning cartoon in which our time travelling heroes wind up in Salem and get accused of practicising witchcraft. That’s right, Gargamel and Hordak and even Serpentor threw dark magic all willy nilly all over the joint back in the day, but it was Doc and Marty who got hauled in on sorcery violations. Cartoon justice is such an oxymoron.

For once, I actually remember most of these figures pretty well. My sisters and I only had two Thundercats figures, and one was a villain, Vultureman. The other was Lion-O. Vultureman played lackey to other, more important villains, like Darth Vader; Lion-O was a heroic love interest for female action figures.

As a Roger Rabbit fan who had her Roger Rabbit stuffed doll for over a decade, I’m surprised I didn’t have any of those bendy figures. I do remember seeing them in some toy shops and gift stores in Cape May. My eyes were probably more on stuffed animals in those shops than anything that could bend.

Merkin McGee

We are werewolves, not swearwolves.

Whalley Range

In honor of Back to the Future Day — the guy in this video clearly went to Matt’s Actor’s Studio:

I had the X-Men wolverine with the voice box on the back in the day. I still remember when the batteries ran low and i took it to a watch repair store that was on my block. The guy who ran the store was a nice guy and he put my wolverine toy on his work bench and put in some new watch batteries.

I f’n loved the tales from the crypt keeper cartoon series, i still have to go trough all of the episodes online. But i had no idea they had a toy line.

The baddies on Batman TAS were my favorite version of all them. Scarecrow had some pretty bad ass episodes if i remember. This toy line seems overlooked sometimes, but it earns my credit. I made it a point to own MAN-BAT, that is one of my favorites, and i still need to get clayface.

I’m so glad you got it! Like Modok, I inquired on how to chip in and even asked again, but never got a response, so I was hoping they got you taken care of. I’m still praying for you on the job front. Is there any good news there? Also, I loved your video. Happy birthday, Elyse! You’re the second pretty lady I know that has a birthday today!

Teddy Ray

You’re a good man, Brew Berry.

Teddy Ray

-Man, Venom has some serious, disturbing thigh gap going on up there, doesn’t he?
-Mumm-Ra really DOES look less intimidating without his headgear. He just looks…cranky.
-I remember watching at least one episode of Tales from the Cryptkeeper, but I had no idea there was a toy line based on the series. Now I know!
-I really like that Scarecrow figure. That might be my favorite of this bunch.
-I’ve never been a fan of bendy figures, so I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen that Judge Doom figure before or if I just ignored it. Seeing it makes me really wish that there were a proper series of Who Framed Roger Rabbit action figures, though.

When I first heard about it before it was out I was very curious about it, and it ended up delivering so much. They talked about making a sequel about the werewolves. Not sure if that might happen now with Taika doing Thor, and all now.

Teddy Ray

Glad to hear it! I hope it pans out for you!

Derek

I don’t actively recall Tales from the Cryptkeeper toyline but man, I watched the crap out of that show and the accompanying gameshow(!) We were very aware of Tales from the Crypt for a while but I mean, I never had cable. I remember Bordello of Blood being a big deal when I was in…middle school (?)
It’s pretty good.
The new Star Wars article is good too.

Derek

Man-Bat was great.

rpdavies

Same here, the shoe was voiced by Nancy “Bart” Cartwright.

Jeremy Cale

Am i forgetting something? What’s up with that vulture? I don’t recall Judge Doom having one in the movie.